12-year city veteran is new finance director

Manteca has a new finance director.Incoming City Manager Tim Ogden — whose first official day on the job is next Monday — has appointed Jeri Tejeda to the post. Not only does it let him hit the ground running but the critical finance functions won’t miss a beat.Tejeda has worked in the city’s finance department for 12 years.She replaces Suzanne Mallory who retired last month after serving 16 years as the finance director.Mallory — along with Melody Wilson — was recognized for her service by the Manteca City Council during Tuesday’s meeting.Wilson also just recently retired. She worked for the city 36 years fulltime and part-time for 1½ years as part of a youth employment program starting when she was 16.That prompted 34-year-old Councilman Gary Singh to quip to Wilson “that you’ve served the community longer than I’ve been alive.”Wilson noted the city workforce has a true family feel and that people pull together through both the rough times and the good times.Councilman Richard Silverman praised Mallory for being laser precise whenever he’d asked for how much money the city was spending on a project or how much funding was in an account.Silverman said he always indicated a ballpark figure would be good enough but Mallory insisted on researching it so she’d have the figure down to the exact penny.“Impressive,” Silverman noted.

Mayor can’t stayaway from city politicseven if it is not MantecaIf you are on vacation in Monterey for a week with your wife and you have a few minutes to kill what do you do?If you’ll Manteca Mayor Steve DeBrum you turn on the public access channel in your hotel room and catch coverage of the Monterey City Council as well as that of several other nearby communities.DeBrum noted the big issues where the homeless and RV parking. And how are the councils addressing them? Directing to have studies done.“Things are pretty much the same wherever you go,” DeBrum noted.To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com